'NEPA' Strikes In South Africa!

I really do not agree with you!This is your personal opinion and please do not make it a theory!
Many black men might've failed in the past but that is not enough reason to generalise failure.
Nelson Mandela ruled,and he ruled successfully!

Ok, what can you say about the popular  Bush;how better has he made the US ever since he took
over from W. Clinton?
just try compare the value of USD in both era.

Am not making excuses on behalf of the unscrupulous ones that had failed us,but my point is that
the "cause" of the failure should rather
be analyzed instead of being stereotyped by it, to avoid it recurrence.
Most of the African Presidents had failed,just because of their greed,some,
inferiority complex when
negotiating deals with the white,some pride,some lack of relevant education,most of them lack of insight etc
We are the leaders of tomorrow!
And I do agree with this post:
Bible says: As A man thinketh so he is!Pro 23.7
Even "if" the older generation has failed us, the moment we get stereotyped , that a black man cannot rule
a country, then we're locked in that mentality
 and it'll make things more difficult for us.
But if we try analyze the causes of their failure,and believe we can fix it, I promise you , we'll achieve it
(though it may take some extra hard work and time!)
Back to the issue at hand,am a student here in Cape Town.And I can tell you that Mbeki is not a bad leader,t
hough he made a mistake!
At least he came to the public to APOLOGIZED that indeed he got it wrong on the power issue but a serious
planning has been done to get it rectified!
(how many presidents would do that?not many ;has Bush apologized to the Americans about the Iraqi war?because am sure he hasn't found the weapons of mass destruction !)
Mind you,power outage in South Africa is not the same as that of Nigeria.Most of the times the outage last for 10 -15mins and rare occasions 4hrs(and that approximately 2 times in a month);And most of the time they announce it before it happens,some times ago the govt representative gave out gas stove to people in the townships here in CT because there was going to be outage for few days(then they were fixing the Nuclear Power station in Melkbos,Cape Town)based on what've seen and heard so far.
The public reaction is so fierce, because this people are not used to it! And another reason is that almost every infrastructure is dependent on electricity eg the train,the businesses,traffic lights,the security gates,many many more.
Am always proud to be a Nigerian,and am on journey to equip my self on how to make my country the best place in the world!
So let's not say a black man cannot rule a country, because I believe the best president in the world in years to come will be one of us(Nigerians)
provided we believe.
God Bless Nigeria!

Government at Fault in S. Africa's Electricity Crisis, Mbeki Says

JOHANNESBURG, Feb. 8 -- President Thabo Mbeki apologized Friday for his government's failure to prevent crippling power outages across South Africa and warned that restoring a reliable supply of electricity would require new projects and major cuts in usage. "We face an emergency, but we can overcome the problems in a relatively short period," Mbeki said in his televised state of the nation address, delivered in Cape Town at the annual opening session of Parliament. "This situation has precipitated the inevitable realization that the era of very cheap and abundant electricity has come to an end." Mbeki also asserted that his mediation of the eight-year-old political stalemate in Zimbabwe had resolved all "substantive matters" there. His assessment sharply contradicted the accounts of Zimbabwe's major opposition party, which has repeatedly said talks there collapsed over several intractable disputes.


President Thabo Mbeki

But the largest part of the wide-ranging speech, which Mbeki delivered in a monotone while rarely looking up from a text on the lectern, was devoted to South Africa's electrical shortage. He offered his most forceful and comprehensive response yet to the crisis, which has snarled traffic, darkened homes and idled vast sectors of Africa's largest economy. The shortages had long been predicted, as demand rose swiftly because of a post-apartheid economic boom. But the government, which was seeking to privatize power generation, for years blocked plans by the state-owned utility, Eskom, to expand supply and extend access to more black South Africans. The crucial mining industry was forced to shut down for several days last month when Eskom warned that it could not guarantee enough power for the service elevators that move miners in and out of the deep shafts. As the blackouts grew worse, with some areas losing power for hours nearly every day, Eskom said relief was five to seven years away because major new coal and nuclear power plant projects would take at least that long to complete. But Mbeki said in his speech that faster improvements were possible. He called for programs to encourage more-efficient lighting, solar water heaters and rapid development of gas-turbine plants, which are less efficient than some other technologies but can be built much more quickly. He also called for new investment in renewable energy sources. Eskom has announced that it will begin rationing electricity to avoid unscheduled outages. Mbeki said government agencies will find ways to reduce usage as well. "Please feel free to name and shame those that do not," he said. Mbeki acknowledged the concerns of international investors over several recent upheavals, including the case of national police chief Jackie Selebi, who was placed on leave amid corruption allegations, and Mbeki's recent replacement as president of the ruling African National Congress by Jacob Zuma. Mbeki had fired Zuma in 2005 as the nation's deputy president, also over corruption allegations. "It would be irresponsible to ignore these and other concerns or dismiss them as mere jeremiads typical of the prophets of doom," Mbeki said. "The real challenge is to respond to them in a manner that conveys the definite message to everybody in our country, and the millions in Africa and elsewhere in the world who watch our country with keen interest, that we remain firm in our resolve to continue building the kind of South Africa that has given hope not only to our people but also to many others outside our borders." Zuma, who watched the speech from a gallery overlooking the chamber, later told the South African Press Association, "I think what the president has announced is indicating positiveness . . . saying wherever there are gaps, we have got to do extraordinary things to ensure that we implement our programs." Zimbabwean opposition leaders have complained that Mbeki's mediation had failed to resolve urgent matters, namely the timing of the coming elections and the implementation of a transitional constitution. "There's no agreement," said Nelson Chamisa, spokesman for the largest faction of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, speaking from Harare, the Zimbabwean capital. "There's no talks. It's still a deadlock. The whole dialogue is in the mortuary." The two factions of the Movement for Democratic Change have said that without the political freedoms entrenched in the new constitution, elections under President Robert Mugabe would be neither free nor fair. They also called for the vote, scheduled for March 29, to be delayed to allow the implementation of new laws. In his speech, Mbeki referred to the remaining issues as a "procedural matter" and said mediation would continue.

Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/08/AR2008020801190.html

Is that an ear ring in his left ear?

_kidding

so what?

i guess he poster knows.just an illustration to get the msg.

Olrotimi 
Re: ‘nepa’ Strikes In South Africa!
« #1 on: February 02, 2008, 12:13 AM » 

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read that storry in the paper, felt really bad.wanted nigeria to have all the bad records in africa

 @Olrotimi
I will not be suprised if you wish your family have all the bad records in town, why don't you start saying something good about yourself and your country? What you confess, you possess

it just goes to show how nigerians  are trying.
imagine the NEPA situation in nigeria,its old story infact our economy is growing!!!
but in south africa they are shouting!!panicking!!!?
and they are loosing money
it goes to show the inevitability of a black man running a country.
the main reason south africa is the best economy in africa is because it is run by whites.
let the blacks run it and the whole thing will go down under
nigerian sre trying at least we are running our economy ourselves, instead of being second citizens in your father land
ciao

So why did Mbeki not heed an expert's advice on the need to build new power plants. Yes it is an evidence of a black man's inability to run a country.


White people own the resources in Africa. So how can Africans run it with no resources? Its not that they are inable they don't have the resources. After colonialisation, whites still kept the resources.

If they take the resources back it will start a war. And they weill be seen as racists.

I love the way this young girl reasons, accepting is a form of defeat and until more and more black people feel empowered we as a race will always be trapped.